Times change, and it is no longer strange to see Spaniards traveling abroad as tourists.  Twenty years ago, to be a Spaniard in France, Germany, Switzerland or other central European country was synonymous with cheap labor.  There are some hardheaded central European people who still think this way, due to their lack of education or who knows what other reason.  Some years ago in Dusseldorf (Germany), where my wife, some friends and I were spending our vacation, a German in some state of drunkenness burst in on the conversation that my friend and I were having in a bar, saying "si tu laborare en Alemagna par que non parlare alemagn?" (you can imagine the good German's horrid Italian).  My friend and I fruitlessly attempted to explain to him that we were tourists, but that was not believable for such a narrow-minded Goth..."How a Spaniarrt, tourrrist?" he slurred.
Sometimes we also provoke them through our inexperience as travelers, as it happened in Luxembourg, when I was 22 years old.  While we were out on the street, the girl who was with me needed to go to the toilet, and as was Spanish custom, girls went to the toilet in twos.  Luxembourg, like some European cities, had public pay-toilets, where my girl and her friend had to insert a coin to open the toilet door, under the watchful eye of a 1.85m., 95 kg.(or so) woman.  Of course, as you might imagine, the good Flemish woman did not know the Hispanic custom.  Since two girls would enter for the price of one, the mastodon that was watching could not accept that two 1.60m. (in heels) and not more than 50 kg. Spanish women were swindling her out of a payment.  My travel mate and I were waiting outside, when suddenly female screams broke out, intermixed with the mastodon's roars.  We ran in to see the lady coming to blows with the two girls; you can imagine the power of that Gallo-Teuton lady, who with just one slap floored the both of them.

These experiences are no longer being repeated.  Spaniards are learning how to travel, and what's more, we learn languages, whereas some time ago we spoke "Englishgnol", "Germangnol", "Frenchgnol" ("Englishgnol": the "alloy" of English and Spanish language made by a Spaniard attempting to speak English without any knowledge about it).  Now we can communicate with some fluency in correct English or French.  Spaniards are becoming world citizens without inferiority complexes or other restraints, and we hardly see a Spaniard today with the "paella" and the "bota" on the streets of Bern, Paris or other city.  We are, at last... ESPAÑOLES!

(J.J.Gómez, June 1993, Murcia, SPAIN)